The Fat Lady

President Obama is still received throughout the Western alliance as the “leader of the free world”, a position American presidents have held de facto since the end of the Second World War. Despite the increasingly strident domestic criticism of the president and falling poll numbers, other leaders find it impolitic — not to mention diplomatically improper — to openly express doubts about Obama’s character or competence.

So they’ve taken a page out of his playbook and decided to do a little backstabbing themselves. The exact moment when the Benghazi crisis began to clip Obama’s wings will probably be identified as August 29, 2013. That is the date the British parliament refused to join Barack Obama’s impending strike on Syria after it had crossed his “Red Line”.

Congress couldn’t stop him. The American press couldn’t delay him but the British parliament, by pulling out of the deal, tossed a wrench into the gears.

And now the Germans are doing the same thing. Though the Washington press try to portray Obama’s inaction against Putin as the result of his generous nature, Obama is hampered by a more basic problem: Germany won’t go along.

NBC news says that while “Obama wants the United States and Europe to stand together and force Russia to rethink its moves in Ukraine.” But Angela Merkel isn’t taking orders. The German leader was in Washington to discuss how far she is willing to play along. ”She is under intense pressure from business interests at home, plus segments of the German public, not to hit Russia too hard, said Julianne Smith, a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.”

Adding an element of tension, Germany is still furious about National Security Agency eavesdropping, which reportedly extended to Merkel’s own phone.

“It will not be all sweetness and light. She’s coming. That’s important,” said Smith, director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program at the Center for a New American Security, a nonpartisan policy center in Washington.

Most of the heavy lifting in a sanctions regime will be done by Merkel. She’s not in Washington to rubber-stamp orders issued by the Leader of the Free World. If anything president Obama is being told how far he can go, like a child put on an allowance.

Only a comparatively small percentage of the American public may have noticed that despite the happy talk reported in the papers Obama failed to get a trade deal during his trip to Japan. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation writes, “American president Barack Obama has left Japan, having failed to lock in a bilateral trade deal between the two countries.”

Australia signed its own trade agreement with Japan earlier this month that will see tariffs reduced across a number of commodities, although the agriculture sector was largely disappointment with that deal.

The American farm lobby expressed its irritation that Australia was able to secure a deal with Japan where the US has not.

Shinzo Abe is less deferential too. Taken together these actions are suggestive of a kind of low-key circumscription of Obama by key members of the alliance. They are now slow-walking him, fobbing him off or — in the case of the British — outright refusing to go along, almost as if a ‘no confidence’ vote in his leadership had been cast behind his back.

Russia perhaps sensing this, may be trying to further diminish Obama’s stature by ridicule. Recently it retaliated against American sanctions placed on Putin’s inner circle by enacting sanctions of its own. There’s a “‘black list’ of Americans banned from Russia [including] Obama campaign fundraisers tied to the LGBT community and senior Congressmen” according to The Daily Beast.

But the ridicule is probably superfluous plus there probably aren’t many Obama LGBT bundlers who are fixing to vacation in Moscow anyway. It does in indicate a belief Obama is vulnerable to gibes.

However, whatever Putin may do Obama’s political fate will ultimately be determined domestically, and that may be the biggest danger to the president of all. Glenn Reynolds notes that he is “lawyering up”, hiring W. Neil Eggleston as chief counsel. “Eggleston worked as a White House lawyer under Clinton, handling politically explosive issues like the Whitewater controversy, and later represented the former president during the investigation into the Monica Lewinsky affair.”

Hiring Eggleston mirrors House speaker John Boehner announcement that he intends to create a new select committee to investigate the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

“The House committees that have been investigating this attack have done extraordinary work, using their subpoena power, holding dozens of hearings, and conducting hundreds of interviews. Without this work we would not know much that we do today. But it’s clear that questions remain, and the administration still does not respect the authority of Congress to provide proper oversight. This dismissiveness and evasion requires us to elevate the investigation to a new level. I intend for this select committee to have robust authority, and I will expect it to work quickly to get answers for the American people and the families of the victims.

Not always the most daredevil of organizations, a Republican leadership which has been treading water on Benghazi for a year and a half has now nerved itself to strike very nearly at the president. It can only be because they sense Obama’s vulnerability and like a pack of wolves sensing wounded prey are gingerly advancing. In politics timing is everything and maybe Boehner figures “it’s time”.

His nonstick coating has worn out.

While Obama has not quite lost his position as “Leader of the Free World” he seems to have been consensually demoted. While there is no imminent danger to the president from the Congressional select committee on Benghazi, that could change very quickly if the information cofferdam surrounding the president begins to crumble and damaging secrets begin to emerge. The policy background surrounding Benghazi involves matters many times more serious than the attempted burglary which toppled Richard Nixon. The potential for something serious to come out of it is high.

But there’ll be some time yet. There’s a saying that it isn’t over till the Fat Lady sings. She hasn’t quite sung yet, but she is certainly warming up her tonsils.

Did you know that you can purchase some of these books and pamphlets by Richard Fernandez and share them with you friends? They will receive a link in their email and it will automatically give them access to a Kindle reader on their smartphone, computer or even as a web-readable document.

The fat lady might be humming. Or she may be singing. Hell, she may be gargling.

However, this is yet another case of the brilliant designer not building the bridge too low, but rather *someone* building the river too high. The brilliance of the designer can never be doubted, so Evil Forces must be thwarting his attempts.

Medicare and Medicaid going broke? Answer: Obamacare! Obamacare crashes and burns? No it will not! No it did not! It was those Evil Republicans who did not fix it; they knew how, but refused out of pure spite and vindictive racism.

And so it goes. The International Situation is the cause of Obama’s failed foreign policy, due to basic design flaws imposed by White Males, like Condi Rice, just like Detroit going bankrupt and California losing businesses.

So the entire International Situation needs to be redesigned, by those evil people who know how but simply will not. We would not be having so many flat tires if the roads were made of rubber and the wheels of concrete, or something like that.

The WWII leadership of Japan did not reach the mindset of “What the hell were we thinking?” until they were standing on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. And they were a lot smarter than the bunch we have in charge now.

Pajama Boyz had their incestuous Paper Boys to bury the story for them. The Paper Boys deliver the news, it's already been rolled and put on their bicycle baskets for them by their spouses, brothers, and godfathers in the administration.

The lawlessness of this cabal and their Inbred Reds media is the Oedipus Lex of our now system of totalitarian governance.

The criminal enterprise is given a whitewash by a conspiratorial information stream that not only fails to hold them accountable...it marries into the Bozo Nostra and becomes their bagmen.

The Diana West/Bukic scenario in which Obama/Clinton refused a surrender offer by Gaddafi in order to bed down with the Muslim Brotherhood and complete the encirclement of Israel by taking out Mubarak, doing the double secret handshake deal in Geneva that we are not allowed to see, eradicating Gaddafi and propping up Erdogan while abandoning Iraq and Afghanistan...needs a microscopic probing.

This is NOT about the farcical notion that Obama was worried about the "media" taking the outright lies of Benghazi to stop the rout of Romney. The "media" is STILL burying the story and Obama isn't running for office. The story being buried is the SCHEME they are hiding.

Uncover that scheme...and you will begin to understand the reason they perp walked, midnight rousted and jailed a videographer they knew on DAY ONE wasn't responsible for the terrorist attack. They were.

For 18 months they pushed that mountain of lies.

And kept saying..."move on, nothing to see here...and by the way, if you want a story...it's just about good old politics".

THAT is the red herring they WANT to see chased. That Obama's "political team" was concerned about "image". That Al Qaeda wasn't decimated. Because, if they are covering up a dirty scheme, a vile plot, instead...and THAT came out...Obama and Clinton would need to go into deep freeze hiding.

Why no photos of Obama and Clinton dealing with the ongoing murders that night?

Does ANY of that comport with a "concern" that al Qaeda isn't decimated...now?

It makes no sense. That was NEVER the primary reason that Obama/Clinton have acted like OJ driving the slow, white Bronco down the 405 with a gun to his head. They were acting and continue to act...guilty as hell.

They took out Gaddafi who was ready to deal. They armed Al Qaeda. They were in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood. And their plot backfired and got four people killed. They didn't save them...because they didn't want any live witnesses and they haven't gone after the culprits because they know who they are...and the culprits unveil the scheme.

ain't that bizarre? this Svoboda guy seems to have been lectured by the US Military command of the 1940 years:

"That’s not the picture of the Greatest Generation that we’ve been given, but it’s the one Mary Louise Roberts paints to devastating effect in What Soldiers Do. Drawing on an incredible range of sources, including news reports, propaganda and training materials, official planning documents, wartime diaries, and memoirs, Roberts tells the fascinating and troubling story of how the US military command systematically spread—and then exploited—the myth of French women as sexually experienced and available. The resulting chaos—ranging from flagrant public sex with prostitutes to outright rape and rampant venereal disease—horrified the war-weary and demoralized French population. The sexual predation, and the blithe response of the American military leadership, also caused serious friction between the two nations just as they were attempting to settle questions of long-term control over the liberated territories and the restoration of French sovereignty. "

Shades of "Mad Men", Episode 3. Don Draper, a partner in his Ad Agency was put on leave by his peers for conduct unbecoming a partner. They're only letting him back in the office if he promises (in writing) to adhere to a list of onerous requirements.

BO is the biggest mistake of the U.S. electorate in its entire 200+ year history.

You may have also noticed that Israel has not joined the Russian sanctions either. It cannot chance provoking a Russia that's newly active in the Middle East with a petulant, insincere ally like Obama to contend with at the same time.

The oddest thing about the possibility that Zawahiri gave up bin laden in exchange for US help in Libya and Syria-- the oddest thing about that scenario is that if its true and became widely known-- it would embarrass Obama.....but it would totally discredit Ayman Al Zawahiri, al qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood--in the Moslem world.

So why wouldn't Obama be willling to suffer embarrassment for the chance to totally discredit AQ the MB and Ayman Al Zawahiri in the Moslem world.

Conservatives in the House have been demanding the formation of a committee to investigate Benghazi for almost two years. Boehner has refused to establish such a committee. He can no longer hold back the tide. He will claim credit for forming the committee because he is such a strong leader. GMA_B. If he were that, he would have cut off the money supply to Obama years ago.The keys here are that Obama is already a lame duck and Clinton's chances for the Presidency are fading with every new revelation. Amen to both.